Give Your Word
by nanirain
Summary: James Potter is the most popular guy in school. Guys want to be him, girls kill to date him. Everyone loves him, except Lily Evans. Trouble is, she's the only girl he wants. And he's just too stubborn to give her up.
1. The Inevitable Fate

**The Inevitable Fate

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**A/N**: Ok so now many of you may read this and say something along the lines of "THIS IS SO NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING FROM THE SUMMARY! HOW _DARE_ SHE TRICK ME!" Well rest assured that this will be the only chapter of its kind. The rest of it will all happen During the Hogwarts Years when James and Lily are metting/fighting and stuff… you get the picture. This just the prologue. I needed to get it out of my system.

**Disclaimer**: Any recognizable material belongs to someone else

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_The Inevitable Fate…_

The woman running up the living room stairs was going to be murdered. She already knew that. She had known it as soon as she saw the life in her husband's hazel eyes slipped away from beneath her trembling hands. She had known when she saw him die, that she was already as good as dead. It had been mere moments ago when she had left his still warm body down at the base of the steps. His blood was still clinging to her hands in a thin pink coat. Warm, salty blood… his blood, James Potter's blood.

The hot tears were streaming down her face as she ran up the stairs, tripping and banging her shin badly as she caught herself on the rail. She hated herself for leaving him down there, lying on the floor, alone. But she had stayed with him for as long as she could. Even when he had told her to go. He had bought her time. Precious, precious time, and she wouldn't put that time to waste… she had already wasted so much.

And a part of her had already been killed off. A part of her was still sitting at the base of the steps with her husband, cradling his head in her lap and kissing his handsome face a gentle goodbye. It was part that she would never be able to get back again. Even if she did somehow manage to survive the night. But part that remained belonged to her son. And it wasn't going down without a fight. Lily Potter had never been the kind of girl to go down without a fight. Supposedly that had been one of the reasons why he loved her. But the rest of her heart belonged to her son.

Lily uttered the magical words to re-erect the protective barrier that James had instilled at the top of the stairs behind her, a final magical attempt at keeping the Dark Lord from entering her the rest of her home. Even though she knew it would not be enough to stop him. Nothing was gong to be enough. And she was going to die. But she didn't care.

As she spotted the plain white door on the side of the hall, she heard the slow creaking of someone walking up the steps, making her heart jolt in cold fear as she scrambled to her son's room. Harry was still asleep when she came inside, but the sound of the slamming door made the little baby stir, and her son was wide-awake by the time she got to his crib.

The petite wooden structure had been polished and painted to be a perfect, spotless white, as James had insisted that his son deserved nothing less. She grabbed at the sides of the crib with her blood coated hands and jerked to a stop, looking down at him as her head clashed recklessly with the mobile, making the floating clouds and moon jingle and clash together noisily. His wide green eyes seemed to know. They seemed to understand. And as Lily Potter enjoyed her last few glances at her son, a small smile cracked through her worried, and fearful face. A smile of love and adoration for her son. Of gentleness. A smile that reached into her saddened and torn cat-green eyes and made them almost seemed to glow. She loved him… she loved him so much.

Crash.

Lily whipped around, her wavy red hair flying and she glared at the darkly hooded figure that stood in the doorway of her home.

"Get out." She snarled, her voice venomous and hateful. "You don't have any right to be here."

He said nothing.

He did nothing.

But as the silky black hood fell from his disgustingly distorted face, she met his watery red eyes and had to repress a gasp. They were sunken deep into his skin, as if his eye sockets were attempting to suck them inside his skull and swallow them whole. The skin on his face was ropey and ridged with large blue and purple veins where the flesh was a sickly ashen color. He stared at her with blood red seriousness and his voice rasped a haggard, "No."

Lily felt her hatred boil for the man who killed her husband and was threatening her son. A bitter, white-hot raging hate for the man who was threatening her home. "I said _get out_!"

The Dark Lord raised his wand, a long, black and cruel string of wood and directed it at her chest. Instinctively she reached into her pocket for her own, but there was no pocket to meet, and her hand slid uselessly down her hip. She was wearing James's T-shirt. And her wand was in their room.

"Your son…" the heavy voice said thickly, "is dead."

She gritted her teeth as Harry began to cry behind her. His wails echoing in the night air. "No."

"Step aside, mudblood."

"I will _not_!"

"_Do_ it."

"I'd rather die."

There was a long pause of silence, and Lily's rigid form remained in front of the crib. "Have it your way."

A few moments later, Lily Potter was dead.

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**A/N**: Alrighty then… now that that's out of my system. I think I'll start out my next chapter on Lily and James entering her fourth year? What do you think? - _nanirain_


	2. Expect the Unexpected

**Expect the Unexpected**

**A/N: _The A/N at the bottom of the page is important! Please read it!_**

**Disclaimer: **any recognizable material does not belong to me. This is a fan fiction based on JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series. Sue me and I'll sue you back for… stuff. Oh I don't know.

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_Expect the Unexpected..._

This, Lily Evans thought numbly to herself, was not what she had been expecting. It wasn't what she had been expecting at all. It was _very_ different from Cloverfield. It was so different in fact, that she didn't quite know what to make of it. For one, her old school had been an actual building with a metal roof, blue tiled floors, and white, painted cement walls. But this? This was a… a castle.

Yes, the building before her was a gorgeous stone castle. She admired it from the little boat she was on, which was smoothly gliding across the lake's surface. The castle sat up on a hill that slopped down to the docks were they would land. Except for the sound of softly moving water the night was very still. A few feet away the moon's reflection was glittering like a bright white marble on the glassy black water, which rippled and popped as it swallowed up a stray acorn. If it hadn't been for that single disruption of its stillness, Lily would have believed someone if they told her it actually was solid glass.

She was awed. She was so awed that she forgot, momentarily, that she was supposed to be hating the very sight of the castle's moonlit stones. But it was very hard to hate such a beautiful castle. It was very, very hard.

"'S a right beaut'ful nigh ain't 'ere, ain't it?"

Lily jumped at the unexpected gruffness of the voice behind her, making the small rowboat that they were in tip a little to the side. She had completely forgotten about her companion. "Oh, yes, it is." She answered, turning around to face the colossal, and rather hairy man who was ferrying her across the lake. She still had to keep herself from staring at him in bewilderment.

For the first time in her entire life, Lily had no idea how old the man in front of her was. She had barely kept herself from asking, when she remembered how rude that would be. But the man happened to be so strange, that at this point, she wasn't even sure he was human anymore. But it wasn't as if she could manage to ask that question politely either. He was so tall, that Lily had to crane her neck just to see his face, and so wide, that if she tried to hug him, she probably wouldn't even have made it around his front side. Not that she was planning on hugging him any time soon. In truth she was still a bit startled from the sight of him. But he seemed nice.

"Yeh're goin' tah like it here." The man continued, the various leathers and fur pelts moving as he ferried the boat forwards, the water swished around the hull. "Erebody likes it 'ere. 'Specially wit Dubmledore n' all tha."

Lily did her best to try and smile at the man before her. "Yeah, I've heard great things about him. I'm sure I'll like him too… or I hope so anyway." She was not being sincere. What Lily was really hoping for was to be able to go back home to Ireland. What she was really hoping for was for her mom to send her a letter telling her that she could go back to CloverField, that the old school that had recently been forced to close down in favor of the more popular Hogwarts had suddenly reopened. Not only was Lily still slightly embittered that the new school she had been forced to transfer to was the very school which had caused her old one to close down, but she also had never once been to a castle or a boarding school in her entire life, and all she was very sure that she wouldn't like it at all, Dumbledore or no Dumbledore.

" Eup. Yeh'll love it 'ere. I'm sure yeh will. Yeh know the 'eadmaster, Dumbledore's a great fellah, ee is. Great fellah. Eeh'll look after yeh alright."

Lily turned, brushing aside a stray lock of dark red hair and looked at the man who was rowing the boat She studied him for a while, her almond shaped eyes very serious. It only took her a few seconds to tell that he was being absolutely sincere. She could practically feel the loyalty and kindness radiating off of him. And for the first time in a long time, Lily smiled a real smile. A beautiful smile in which her nose crinkled a little and her green eyes sparkled. This man was the first person she had shown a real smile to in a very long time.

"I'm Lily… Lily Evans." She said as she held her hand out to him. She nearly fell out of the boat in surprise when it was swallowed inside his monstrous one. The stranger's palm was callus cracked and gritty, his powerful grip slightly crushing for her smaller hand. But it was warm… and friendly.

"Hagrid." The man introduced himself politely. "I'm the grounds keeper 'ere at Hogwarts. Yeh ever need sumthan, yeh just come down teh see me, aright? Tha' lil stone cottage o'er there's mine. An' yer welcome to it anytime."

Lily smiled a real smile again, shivering a bit as a cool breeze chilled her through her robes. She wondered if Hagrid could even feel it, his beard and mustache were so thick. "Thanks. I'm sure I'll take you up on that sometime."

She couldn't see his mouth, as it was hidden under the thick coverage of his jet-black beard, but she could see the smile inside his eyes and that was good enough for her. It was surprisingly gentle. Lily felt a bit relieved when he finally released her hand, resisting the urge to try and shake briefly it in attempts to let the lost blood flow back into it. And she was also a little comforted by the fact that she had made her first friend away from home. Even if he was a monster of a man with more hair than skin and a voice more gravely than her old driveway.

"Ah, well, looks like we're goin' tah be a bit late. Sorry ter hear tha' yeh missed tha' train." Hagrid said conversationally as they glided forwards through the dark.

"Yeah, well…" Lily thought back on how confused her family had been as there had been no platform 9 ¾ at the unfamiliar train station. And by the time someone had informed her that she in fact had to run full tilt into a brick wall in order to get there, which had alarmed her a but, the train had already been pulling out. "We had a few difficulties finding… the train." She said slowly, realizing how stupid that sounded.

"Aye, tha's what I figured."

Tiredly, the girl sat herself down on the seat of the boat and dipped her fingertips into the lake. It gave her a nice cool feeling as the dark, cold water slid through her hand. It was soothing, and kind of a comforting in an odd way, which Lily was grateful for.

"O, I wudn't do tha if I were yeh." Hagrid said suddenly, eyeing her hand that was now dangling over the edge completely. "Tha ole giant squid in there's got a nasty 'abbit o pullin people in teh the water when yeh're not lookin' for 'im."

Lily's stomach abruptly did a summersault in her gut. She felt her form go rigid in a fraction of a second, the color draining from her face as her cat-green eyes locked in shock with Hagrid's. "_The_ _what_?"

Meanwhile, inside the Hogwarts castle, the Great Hall had been lit with countless rows of floating candlesticks. Burning on the wicks of thousands of little candles, were steady teardrops of honey colored flame. Together the candlesticks illuminated the Great Hall with a homey sort of light, making the varnish on the tables shine and setting a pleasant atmosphere.

At the front of the room, a long mahogany table seated every member of the Hogwarts faculty, from the prim, bone thin, Professor McGonagall to large, jolly, and at the moment rather drunk, Professor Slughorn. And in the very middle of the table was a much smaller man with a light chocolate colored beard, which was liberally streaked with splashes of gray. This man had a very a delicate frame and soft, wrinkling hands, which were resting nicely in his lap, the sky blue silk of his robe wrinkling in soft folds. As he watched the room with sparkling blue eyes, a rather pleased and amused look came over his face. The other teachers seemed to constantly be shooting this sideways glances and at times even attempted to mimic his posture. He seemed oblivious to this, however, and continued surveying the room through his half moon spectacles and laughing blue eyes.

The four house tables were set perpendicular to this long mahogany one, a banner hanging over each with names scrawled in long, loopy cursive in the house colors. The banners read from left to right: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and a finally Slytherin. Between the collective shouts and yells of all the students crammed into these four tables, the entire hall sounded as if it were housing a riot.

To the far left of the room, there was a large crowd of eleven year olds standing in a heard and waiting with anxious, darting eyes. All of them were waiting to be "sorted", and up at the mahogany table, Professor McGonagall now stood ready with an old, withered witch's hat cradled in her hands. The entire room was buzzing with noises of excitement, and in the midst of it all two boys looked very, very bored.

James Potter and his best friend Sirius Black were sitting together at the large oak table furthest to the left, beneath the Gryffindor banner, somewhere towards the lower end of the middle, their faces propped up on their hands and their elbows resting on the glossy table top. They could not have seemed more un-amused.

"I hate this." James said miserably, his head sliding a little lower down his palm as he studied the table with bored hazel eyes. "How much longer are we expected to just sit here?" He dragged his hand through his spiky black hair, which was already messy enough, as it had a strange tendency to stick out in seemingly 'windblown' clumps, making it appear if he had been ridding a broomstick all day long. Of course, this was the way James wanted it to be. It drove the girls crazy. And he liked that.

"Forever." Supplied Sirius, his tone just as dragging and forced. He was currently using his wand to carve his name magically into the side of the heavy oak table. "I just want to eat." He said distractedly. This boy, unlike his friend, had a certain air of dark, brooding elegance about him. His coal black hair was also quite messy, it was true, but it was stylishly messy, something that his best friend, James, no matter how hard he tried, would ever be able to attain. But the aforementioned boy didn't really care that much about his best friend's hair: It wasn't the look he wanted.

"You would think that they'd at least have the decency to stop forcing us to watch all this rubbish after third or second year." James continued to complain, his bored expression breaking for a moment to give a brief smile to a very pretty blonde girl who had been trying to catch his attention the whole time. But the expression returned once he looked back to Sirius. The blonde, who had been ready to give up on James only a few seconds ago was now giving him her full attention again, batting her eyes and pouting her light pink lips from across the way. As long as she was still looking at him, he was satisfied. James didn't actually like the girl on the other side of the table. In fact, he wasn't even sure he properly knew her name. But he took a great amount of pride and pleasure at the amount of attention a single smile could get him with a girl and he did things like that often, much to other boys' annoyances. "We should be able to just eat already."

"Agreed." Sirius said with a smirk, either not noticing, or ignoring all the girls who were trying to (achem) '_discretely_' get his attention. He was not as interested in girls as James seemed to be. And he was perfectly happy to be admired from afar. Lord knew that anyone who wasn't after James was after him, and vice versa as well. James smirked back.

Now, usually the sight of the two boys smirking at each other was an immediate sign for everybody to hit the deck. For when these boys were smiling at each other like that, most of the time it was because something wet, sticky or gooey was about to start flying, falling or otherwise bouncing or something of the sort. Potter and Black were only the most gorgeous and troublesome boys in the entire school. And they clever too, as they got away with almost everything. But for once, the smirks meant nothing; it was a bit early in the year for pranks, even for Sirius and James. Although at the moment they were bored enough to pull one.

"And what, may I ask, are you two moping about for?"

James and Sirius lifted their heads off their hands and looked at another boy who had joined them and was now sitting down next to James. Remus Lupin had a full head of dusty golden hair that was naturally streaked with a few deeper tones of dark brown. His hair was, at the moment, long enough for him to pull it back into a nub of a ponytail at the nape of his neck, which he only did when he was studying. A few stray strands fell into a set of serious light brown eyes that matched his hair in color and seemed to sometimes be beyond them.

"'Ey, Mooney." James greeted him casually. "Just being bored is all. How was your vacation?"

"It was…. Ok." The newcomer said, his gold-flecked eyes thoughtful and bright. "Where's Pete?"

"Dunno." Was Sirius's casual response. "Should be here any minute."

As if on cue, a pudgy, brown haired boy appeared, bustling down the lane between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Table, his eyes darting quickly along the rows of faces as he rang his hands together. Clearly he was looking for someone. Particularly them.

"There he is." Sirius said casually, watching with bored dark eyes as the pudgy boy moved briskly past them, his nervous habits seeming to get worse and worse as he scanned crowd repeatedly. Somehow he had managed to miss them. An idea crossed Sirius's mind and a slow sideways smile that practically caused a girl a few seats over to faint pulled across his lips. "Hey, watch this." He muttered to his friends before he turned around in his seat. "'Hey, Peter! Pete! You missed us!"

The round boy whipped around to face them, acting almost as if he had been struck by something in the face and immediately was met by a large stream of hot pink fluid. The liquid streamed out in a fountain from the tip of Sirius's wand, and splattered all over his robes, new robes from the looks of it, as they were a little too big around the sleeves. "Argh!"

Beside a grinning Sirius, James gave a boyish, half laugh at the sight of his sputtering friend. Neither of the two noticed the way that Remus had began to frown, saying nothing despite the troubled in his light brown eyes.

"Gotcha, Wormy." Sirius said with a little bit of laughter as he and James jumped up to magic away the pink liquid.

"What took you?" James asked, grinning at his slightly pink friend. James tapped his wand against his shoulder and immediately Peter was dry, his robes and skin stain-less.

"I – erm – uh, I couldn't find you." The boy muttered, half a rather nervous smile plastered on his face.

James raised his eyebrows. "Peter, we sit in the same spot every _year_."

"R-right." The younger boy stuttered nervously as he started back to the table with James and Sirius. "W-Well I… I forgot."

"You forgot?"

"Yes… I… I forgot."

"Four years of sitting in the same spot for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you forgot?"

"Um… yeah?"

"Ought to give you a memory charm or something." Sirius said casually, shrugging as he sat back down on his seat. "Keep you from forgetting."

Peter nodded nervously as Remus smiled in welcome. "Hey, Peter."

"Hi, Remus."

They four boys waited out the sorting process while talking and laughing with one another, not paying attention in the least bit to who their new housemates were. You see, it had been a while since the Marauders were all together in one spot and able to talk freely, and now that they were, they were trying to figure out how to make the most of their year at Hogwarts.

When the last new first year was making his way down the isle and had seated himself down at the Hufflepuff table, and just when James and Sirius were about ready to eat an entire horse, the man with a chocolate and gray colored beard stood and cleared his feeble throat. James groaned and propped his face back in his hand; it was time for Dumbledore's annual speech.

"Students," The headmaster's voice rang out loud and clear, silencing the entire hall with only one word. "I trust that each and everyone of you are going to do their best to make this year at Hogwarts a most fantastic and delightful year."

The four boys at the Gryffindor table shot each other amused glances.

"As usual the forbidden forest remains forbidden, and those who do not wish to chance the possibility of an excruciating death should stay very far away from its borders."

There were several comments on that last part which died down quietly. Meanwhile James was counting down the seconds with an I'm-almost-asleep-bored expression.

"And further more, the whomping willow has quite recently been pruned, which makes it rather moodier than usual. You should also stay away from that specific land mark as-"

Slam!

Dumbledore's speech was abruptly cut short. The headmaster calmly directed his crystal blue gaze upwards to the double doors at the end of the hall, which had been thrown open rather unceremoniously. And so because Dumbledore had done it, everyone else did it too. Except for James and Sirius.

"Oh for Pete's sake!" James said angrily as he slammed his fist onto the table. " No not you, Peter," he added quickly as his friend gave him a startled look. " This is _ridiculous_!" He stated angrily as he whirled around. "At this rate we'll never get this over… with…" His sentence trailed off as his eyes fell on the Great Hall's entrance and the unfamiliar girl who was standing in there. James Potter choked on his breath, and blinked while his lips parted in shock. The very sight of the girl in front of him rendered him speechless.

The girl looked like she'd been through hell.

And apparently had also had a rather tough time getting back.

She was wet. Wet in the manner of her entire body happening to be dripping with water, from her sopping dark wet hair, that was tangled with dark green lake weeds, to her long black robes which were clutching greedily to her soaking figure and were ripped badly in several places. Her lightly freckled cheeks were practically as red as her hair, and her breathing was labored and choked.

She appeared to be exhausted. In fact, James wouldn't have been all that surprised if she had collapsed that very moment into the puddle that was forming around her ankles on the marble. She had, he noticed with a bit of amusement, only one shoe on her foot, while the other was fashioning a baggy white sock, which was also thoroughly soaked. He wondered, vaguely, how she had managed to lose it.

It was silent for a very long time. And then finally beside him, Sirius spoke up. "Hullo."

At the same time James craned his body backwards to get a better look at her. "What the bloody hell happened to you, then?" He asked, his causal tone almost identical to Sirius's. For the first time in the entire night, he was genuinely interested. It wasn't often someone managed to pull an entrance like that, and in the middle of Dumbledore's speech no less.

The girl's cat-green eyes flashed dangerously at the two boys who were each regarding her with raised eyebrows and amused smirks. She scowled and opened her mouth to say something, and from the looks of it, it didn't seem as if it was going to be something all that pleasant, but was interrupted suddenly by the arrival of Hagrid. He also, was very, _very_ wet.

"Sorry 'bout tha Dumbledore." The large man said hastily. "Y-Yeh see we wus rowing along down en the lake out back, tryin' to git to the castle 'n all… wen Lily ere stuck 'er 'and inteh the water." He tried to run his fingers through his beard in attempts to comb it down or work the water out, but his large clumsy fingers were soon caught inside the mat of tangles and, being unable to remove them, he was forced to stand there with his hand jammed into his beard. "'Course I tried teh warn 'er bout tha nasty squid down there's, but I ent got the time 'fur ee up and grabbed her."

The silence was very thick.

"But – erm – she, she's alright now, ain't yeh Lily?"

The girl's jaw seemed to tighten and James did not fail to notice the way her hands turned into fists at her side. She obviously didn't seem to think she was all that fine. James felt the corners of his lips turn upwards in a small smile. She looked like she was ready to deck someone. "Yeah." The girl named Lily managed finally through gritted teeth. "I'm still alive, I guess."

Hagrid's laugh was nervous, not at all like the thunderclap laugh he usually had. "Yeh - Yeh see, Dumbledore, there's no 'arm done 'ere, Sir." He said, shifting his weight. "Ain't no 'arm done…"

"Yes, I see that, Hagrid." Dumbledore said, eyeing Lily's soaked robes with some amusement of his own. "I take it the giant squid put up a good fight, then? Judging by the state of… things."

Lily's jaw tightened even more. James could practically hear her teeth grinding together from where he sat, and he swore he saw the girl's bright green eyes flash dangerously at the head master. The students were now trying their best to hide snickers by covering their mouths, though some members at the Slytherin tables were laughing outright. Next to him Sirius was smiling devilishly at the girl's soaked and dishelved self, and in all truths, James was having a hard time keeping himself under control as well. On the other side of Sirius, Peter was grinning like an idiot and giggling like a girl. Remus seemed to the only one of them who kept a straight face.

"'O yeah, ee put up a right good fight," Hagrid responded awkwardly. "Tha' ee did. A right good fight. 'Ad to wrestle 'im for 'er, I did. But we got 'er back all right. Didn't we Lily?"

The girl was very silent. She looked practically irate. Finally James couldn't help himself any longer, and he ducked his head down for a moment and began to laugh. That is, until her glaring green eyes somehow met with his. James felt like she had dumped a bucket of ice water over him and then kicked him in the stomach. She was livid. Her dark green eyes were leveling.

"And considering you cannot swim I assume that you put a great deal of effort into the rescue, Hagrid?" Dumbledore's voice rang through the halls somehow, making the muffled laughter subside a bit.

"Oh… well… It weren't that much ov a deal really." The giant man responded, slightly uncomfortable and embarrassed.

"Nonsense." Everybody's eyes snapped to the girl, who spoke her first words since the beginning of the exchange. Her voice was loud and clear, kind of like a bell. "He saved my life." She said bluntly, her green eyes meeting Dumbledore's with deadly seriousness. "I'd say that was a bit of a deal. Don't you?"

Many people blinked at challenge in her voice. James couldn't remember the last time he'd ever heard anyone use a tone with Dumbledore… not to his face anyway. He also thought he noticed, though he couldn't be sure for most of Hagrid's face was hidden by that bloody beard, that he could see the grounds keeper blushing heavily from embarrassment. He nudged Sirius in the ribs to point it out to him. "Look at that, Padfoot," he said under his breath, "the old goon's blushing like a girl."

Sirius smirked, "Yeah he is, reckon he likes her?"

James laughed boyishly. "Hope not."

"And by 'Lily', I presume that you are the Lily Evans?" Dumbledore asked curiously, as if planning to brush the entire situation with the squid aside, probably for the sake of Hagrid's comfort.

"Yes, I am."

"Good. Very good." The headmaster said with a smile and a wink directed at the girl. James noticed that the wink seemed to throw her off a bit. "Minerva, if you please?"

Professor McGonagall, who had sat back down at the mahogany table, conjured the sorted hat out of the air, though she looked more than a little annoyed at being forced to do so. And soon was she stepping forward with dusty hat in hand. James groaned loudly. "What do we need _that_ for?" He asked Sirius moodily. "We're not starting this thing all over again are we?"

Sirius shrugged as he watched McGonagall pass them by. "Dunno. Looks like today's just going against you, mate." He said with a small smile. "We'll just have to use some of those dung bombs as a form of revenge."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Revenge? For what?"

"For keeping us so bored, that's what." Sirius said matter-of-factly to his friend, leaning forwards a bit to look past James.

Remus rolled his eyes, "Oh yes." He said with a bit of sarcasm, though the faint smile was apparent on his face. "Of course, how silly of me. I forgot that the entirety of the world is expected to revolve around you."

Sirius grinned.

Next to him, James frowned, trying to remember. "What dung bombs?" He asked finally, unable to recall.

"You know, the ones we have in the closet." Sirius said as he stretched out his arms over his head. "We left them behind end of last year."

"Oh, right." James said, while running a hand through his hair and winking at the blonde whose attention seemed to be wavering again. "Forgot about those."

Sirius sighed heavily as his arms came back down. "You're hopeless, Prongs."

Whether Sirius's remark had regarded the dung bomb or the girl he was winking at, James would never know. Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask, Dumbledore interrupted again. Tonight just seemed to be the night for those.

"Students, I would like you to welcome our newest addition to the school." Dumbledore said, his voice ringing loudly through the hall. "Ms. Lily Evans will be enrolling in Hogwarts this year, and we shall all be very pleased to have her, I'm sure. I trust that her fellow students will do their very best to make her as comfortable as possible." He smiled at them all, but for some reason it seemed to be more of a mischievous, knowing smile rather than a kind one. "Now, seeing as how she has yet to be sorted into the proper house, I believe I am delaying something with this incessant rambling." Finally something James agreed with.

Lily Evans seemed to regard Professor McGonagall with suspicion as the woman approached her with the tattered witches hat. McGonagall though, who apparently was just as impatient to get it over with as James had been the entire night, made her way over to Lily Evans and jammed the hat on her head before the girl could say a word. James was only slightly interested anymore. But he watched with the rest of the great hall as the sorting hat came to life. It sat for a moment or two, but had hardly touched her soaking head before it shouted out "Gryffindor!"

"Oh good," James said, turning around and looking expectantly at the tabletop. "Now that _that's _finally over with."

"We can eat." Sirius finished for his friend, also turning to look at the table for food while McGonagall wrenched the hat off Lily's head and Hagrid pointed out to the flustered girl which table to go to.

"Well, not quite yet." Remus said watching his two friends with a small smile.

James and Sirius looked at him with steadily boring eyes. "And why not?" Sirius finally asked.

"Well… _because_ Dumbledore hadn't finished his speech, yet." Remus answered simply.

James groaned. Sirius rolled his eyes. "Fantastic." They both muttered at the same time.

Across from the table the blonde girl seemed to sigh in defeat. But just as she started to look away James cleared his throat and looked at her, ruffling his hair and giving her another smile. She practically fell over herself. And two seconds later she was fawning over him again.

Beside him Sirius rolled his eyes. "James." He said, his tone slightly bored again as he studied the star patterned ceiling above them. "I can't find Sirius again."

"What?" Peter asked, his expression obviously confused.

"The constellation, Pete." Sirius answered absently, frowning a bit as he studied the sky. "Can't find it anymore."

James shrugged. "I don't see what harm it does." He said casually, knowing that the 'James' had been something meant to tell him to stop flirting with the girl, but still making a mental note to not look at her again. "I just hate being bored… And I think it's that box-shaped one over there." He said, pointing lazily while Sirius squinted slightly at the direction.

"That one?"

"No… that one to the right. I think that's it."

This time it was Remus's turn to roll his eyes.

* * *

**A/N**: Ok so I was so torn, I didn't know what year to put these kids in. So I skirted the issue. But I'll have to put their ages in the next chapter so need your help. Do I choose fourth year or fifth year? It all depends on how long the story is supposed to be and stuff like that. If it is fourth year then this chapter will be more focused on the whole Lily's first year and the Marauders dealing with Remus's werewolf thing. If its fifth year it'll be one hell of a long year and it will be more focused on James/Lily. Well? I need help! Please! 


	3. The Kitten Squisher

**The Kitten Squisher

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**

**A/N**: Oh, just to clarify, yes, Lily and James are in the same year. The thing of it is, Lily is sort of like a transfer student, so she's 14 and James is 14 (I decided to put them in fourth year due to popular demand (which is two by the way/).). but since she hadn't gone to Hogwarts for her 1-3 years she still needed to be sorted, so they just sorted her when she was 14 instead of being 11. And in the last **A/N** when I said "Lily's first year" I mean her "first year at Hogwarts" which will actually be as a 4th year student… Sorry if that is confusing anybody. The point of it all is that yes, James and Lily are the same age and in the same year. Otherwise the story would be very… weird.

**Disclaimer**: Any recognizable material does not belong to me.

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_The Kitten Squisher…_

Lily let out a heavy sigh as she stepped out of the shower stall, ringing her thick red hair dry with her hands, a soft white towel wrapped around her body. When she sniffed at a lock, her nose wrinkled in distaste. She had lathered, rinsed and repeated eight times that night already, and her hair still stubbornly clung a few faint traces of lake water and squid. Great. And to think her mother swore on L'Oreal… but then her mother had never been dragged into a lake and practically drowned by a giant squid. Or at least she hoped not.

"Hey, Dezzy." Lily said as she crashed on her bed, dressed in an oversized black T-shirt and very short, cotton blue shorts. "What's up, little kitty?"

The little black kitten uncurled itself from the feather pillow it was resting on, lifting her head lazily and cracking open her bright green eyes. Recognizing Lily, Dezzy stretched her delicate form and yawned, her little pink tongue curling over delicate, little white teeth, and then stumbled across the bed to see her 'mother'. The kitten's bright green eyes were the same color as Lily's; apparently that's what made them such a striking pair.

It had been Lily's muggle uncle who had bought her the adorable kitten a few weeks before his favorite niece set off for Hogwarts, thinking that a black cat would be the most proper familiar for his darling little "firecracker" (her nickname by him).

Lily smiled wryly. Once her uncle was convinced that she was, in fact, a witch and really could do magic, he had made a point of being very supportive of her… almost overly supportive in fact. But she was still grateful for it. She was so grateful, in fact, that she hadn't had the heart to tell him that none of her other witch friends owned black cats. It was a simple stereotype that, in fact, was often avoided in the magical world. But regardless, she had accepted the kitten loving and named her Des Demona, or Dezzy for short.

"Mew."

Lily smiled and held out her little finger for her kitten to suck on. "How was your day, then?" She asked, regarding the black kitten that was thoughtlessly chewing on her finger. "Better than mine I hope."

The kitten lifted a petite paw and put it up on to rest on the back of Lily's hand, making the girl smile at the tender skin on hers.

"You want to go play for a bit?" Lily asked Dezzy who was now batting playfully at her finger. She took that as a yes. "Ok then, let's go." Lily said, tiredly, scooping up the playful kitten and heading down to the common room.

Someone was shaking him… shaking him kind of hard...

James frowned in his sleep, trying to bury his face deeper into the goose feather pillow. It could _not_ have been morning already. He had only gone to sleep a second ago.

Sirius's voice filtered through his ear, words like "up" and "lazy ass", and "stupid". Ignoring them, James burrowed his head even deeper into pillow. He could deal with being a 'stupid lazy ass' and he could deal with the possibility of suffocating in goose feathers too, just so long as he didn't have to wake up yet. And then finally the word "prank" registered in his half-awakened brain. And it was enough o wake him up up.

Groaning tiredly, James rolled over in his comforter, till his legs were hanging over the edge of his four-poster bed. Gradually he sat up, black hair even messier than usual, his expression groggy and his hazel eyes filmed over. It was one o'clock in the morning and he was still half asleep. It was because of this that he didn't even bother to pull a shirt on over his sweat pants. Out of habit he ruffled his messy black hair and pulled his arms over his head to stretch as he let out a long yawn. His toned, muscled body moved slowly, the abs in his flat stomach becoming very apparent.

"What are we doing?" He asked lazily as he pulled on his glasses, only able to find them because of the dim light glowing at the tip of Sirius's wand.

"Got the dung bombs." Sirius said, smiling as he held up his hand. James squinted through the dim light till he saw the three brown, marble-sized balls fitted snugly into the gaps between Sirius's fingers. "Want to come along?"

"'Course." James said, letting loose another thick yawn as he stood up off the bed. "I'll get the cloak, you get Remus and Peter?"

"Right."

James dug slowly through the trunk at the foot of his bed, while Sirius's glowing wand moved a few beds over. Soon Remus and Peter would be awake and the Marauders would set off the pull their first prank of the year. James searched until his fingers brushed against the smooth, cool silk. Grinning, he lifted it out of the trunk and took a moment just to hold it in his hands. The invisibility cloak felt like water in his palms, and he found that he was suddenly aching to try it on again. He had missed it since last year.

"'Oy, James, we're ready." Came a voice.

"Right, coming."

The common room was very dark. The fire, which had been roaring only a few hours ago, was now a small, orange light lapping at charred and ember-infested log. Seeing as how the Marauders had to go down the narrow staircase single file, they couldn't put on the cloak until they had reached the base of the stairs. They then decided to wait to put it on until after they had left the Gryffindor tower, on the off chance that someone should follow them out of the boy's dorm and then see them disappear. Wouldn't _that_ be an easy one to explain.

It was as James and Sirius were walking across the room with Peter and Remus moving softly behind them, smiling and joking quietly to each other, that James tripped over something. And that something gave a small, strangled yelp.

James jumped about a foot. "What the-"

"Hey!" An angry voice called out behind them. James and Sirius whirled around. "That's _my_ cat!"

Blinking briefly, James looked down at the dazed kitten at his feet, which blinked confusedly and shook its head once. "Huh." James said, staring down at it, his expression one of mild interest. As if to say 'well would you look at that?'

"_Huh_?" The shadow of a girl echoed from the other side of the room. "_Huh_! You just squished on my kitten and all you have to say about it is '_huh_?'!"

James looked up at the girl, squinting at her through the darkness. All he could make out was a head of dark red hair, but he ran his fingers through his own anyway. "_Squished _on your kitten?" He asked, a tone of amusement in his voice.

"Not proper grammar, you know." Sirius said dauntingly to the shadowy figure, putting his hand on James's shoulder as a signal for them to leave. "C'mon mate, let's go."

But just as James as turning around, the girl moved into the firelight and he instantly recognized her. "Hey…" he said slowly, pointing a finger at her while he tried to frown thoughtfully, but the smirk on his lips gave him away. "Your that new girl who fell into the lake."

Icy green eyes snapped up to meet his, the same green eyes that had leveled him in the Great Hall. "And you're the idiot who thought the Sirius constellation was shaped like a box."

James scowled as a muffled laughter came from behind him. Turning, he saw Remus standing in the corner with a hand pressed over his mouth, trying and failing to keep himself from laughing. Deciding to ignore his friend, James turned around and scooped up the still dazed black kitten off the floor. "Here's your cat." He said casually as he one handedly extended it towards her, holding it by the skin on the back of its neck.

"Mew!"

"You jerk!" The girl snapped, her almond shaped eyes widening as she snatching the alarmed kitten from his hand and held it protectively to her chest. "You can't pick up an kitten like that!"

James stared blankly at the girl before turning to give a slow and rather incredulous look at Sirius. "Is she serious?"

In all his life, James would never have dreamed that a girl would have yelled at him about for picking up a kitten the 'wrong way'. He hadn't even known there had been a right way. He had never held a kitten. Sure he expected to be yelled at for playing pranks, stealing girlfriends, and the occasional cold-hearted remark but… picking up a kitten? Most girls would have sooner yelled at the _kitten_ for getting in _his_ way than shout at _him_ for returning it to them.

Sirius only shrugged while James blinked bewilderedly and turned back to the girl. "I'm James." He said after a while, thinking that maybe she just didn't know who he was. "You know… James _Potter_?"

Lily scowled. "And?"

James blinked again. It appeared that this time he was entering shock. Remus noticed it first.

"Sirius…" The dark haired boy turned around to look at his friend. "Erm - maybe we should… _move_ him." Remus said, nodding his head meaningfully at James's rock-hard body. It was then that Sirius saw the way his friend's hazel eyes were widening in shock… and growing wider by the second. James's face was a stunned expression in the firelight. Sirius recognized that expression.

"Well, time to go!" Sirius said hastily, grabbing James by the shoulders and starting to haul him out of the common room house, not caring how rough he was being. He couldn't afford to have another episode like the one in Hogsmead.

"W-wait, wait!" James said suddenly, yanking himself out of Sirius's grip and stumbling back to the girl. "You don't know who I _am_?" he asked incredulously, still staring at her with an amazed expression.

"_No_." Lily said, her face twisting in what could have only been absolute disgust. "Why should I know? I only got here tonight!"

"Yeah, but you've been here for like, six hours!" James shouted.

"Five and a half, actually." Was Lily's cold response. "And so far hating every second of it."

"But that's a _long_ time!" James said, apparently deciding to ignore her second remark. "You should have heard about me by _now_! I mean, don't you live in the _girls' _dorm?" He demanded, his voice indignant.

"James," Sirius started, his tone impatient. "We've got to get going if we want to-"

"Of course I live in the girls' dorm! Where _else_ would I live?"

"Yeah, well I know for a fact that those girls mention my name at least seven times an hour! If you were a _normal_ girl you should have already heard about me!"

"James-"

"You really _are_ a stupid jerk!"

"We really should-"

"Well seeing as how I've never been called a 'stupid jerk' by anyone else before, clearly you're _not_ normal!"

"Look, mate, we _have_ to-"

"Oh I'm sure they've called you that before! You're ego's just so big that its stuffed up your ears!"

"Hey, now-" James took a step back at the advancing Lily, Dezzy now clutched tightly in her arms. He wondered vaguely if he should let her know that _she _was now the one squishing on her _own_ kitten. Its little green eyes were practically bugging out of the sockets.

"And please, _I'm_ not normal?" Lily said, cutting him off. "You don't even know the right way to pick up a _cat_!"

"That's because there is no _wrong_ way to pick up a cat!" James defended himself, exasperated. "It's not like he's not dead or anything!"

"Prongs, the dung bombs-"

"It's a she!"

"Is that really the point?"

"JAMES!"

Finally Remus laid a hand on Sirius's shoulder, making the now panting other boy jump and whirl around in surprise. "Padfoot, I don't think he's listening to you."

Sirius scowled, "What are you talking about? Sure he's listening to me."

Remus raised an eyebrow and cast a glance over Sirius's shoulder at James and the new girl. "No… I really think he's not…"

"Look, give me that stupid kitten and I'll show you that he's perfectly fine." James said, running his fingers through his hair, though now it was a gesture of exasperation and slight anger rather than to impress the girl in front of him.

"Oh, yeah, right, like I'd ever let you _touch_ Dezzy again!"

"I never did anything _wrong _to Skezzy!" James cried, clearly frustrated.

"Dezzy!"

"Whatever!"

"First you squished her! Then you practically _strangled _her! Clearly we do not share common definitions of the word 'wrong'!"

"Yes, _clearly_!"

Sirius studied his best friend in bewilderment. He had never seen James this worked up, especially over a kitten. But then… maybe it wasn't the kitten… maybe it was the girl. Sirius scowled; no, there was no way James would ever ignore him just because of some girl so it must have been the kitten. …Wait… James was ignoring him because of a kitten? That couldn't be right either. "Well, we'll have to break this up or they'll wake up the entire dorm." Sirius finally said, his tone a little tired. He was getting bored of listening to incessant shouting and being ignored for the first time by his best friend. "Right then," he said, turning to Peter and Remus. "On three. One – two – three!"

"If you'd just listen to me for a second, I'd explain that I- _oof_!"

Lily's grip loosened on her poor little kitten (who had begun clawing desperately at her arm), her green eyes blanked for a moment with curiosity and surprise as each and ever other member of the Marauders abruptly came flying out of nowhere and dog piled on James, effectively knocking him to the ground. It made her feel like she was watching a super bowl… only with men in robes instead of beefy football uniforms. Imagine… the super bowl with the players dressed in wizarding robes. She could just see Tom Brady, the Patriot's buff quarterback making a rather impressive pass off to a team member only to trip on the hem of his robe and fall flat on his face… She had to hold in a giggle.

There was a muffled cry, which she could only assume was James himself, but Sirius clamped down on the cry with a firm hand, cutting it short. "Sorry about that." He said, giving her a charming smile. "But you see we really must be going now. You know, people to kill, things to booby-trap… things of all sorts. Until next time, then, Tilley was it?"

"Lily."

"Right, Silly."

"Lily."

"Of course."

And so Lily watched, rather stunned as the three boys dragged a struggling jerk out of the portrait hole, the door swinging shut on several muffled screams.

"Mew."

Lily blinked and looked down at Dezzy, who she had completely forgotten about until now. "Oh… right." She said, tapping her kitten on the nose lightly and smiling. "Forgot about you… let's go find ourselves some string."

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**A/N**: Hmm…. I don't know how much I like this story… seems to be rather strained. Oh well its early in this whole thing yet! And the least I have to do is get up to my favorite part of all, which involves James jumping off the astronomy tower trying to get Lily's attention. Needless to say he gets it… ah well, that one won't be coming for a while. Reviewers are my friends! Oh, and Lady Sonora the Black-Rose, I must thank you for your loyalty in dropping me off all these wonderful reviews. You rock! 


	4. A cute kind of Crazy

**Chapter Four: A cute kind of Crazy**

**A/N**: Thank you for all your lovely reviews. They mean a lot to me. **Cylobaby**, I'll explain about that train thing later. (psst - that means she doesn't know yet, but she's going to figure it out by the next chapter. /). Its not going to be anything special, probably just her contacting the school somehow, unless you know I can think of something great (doesn't happen that often). Thank you for finding the hole. And for those of you who don't think fourth year is an old enough year for James to fall in love, I didn't realize I hadn't made it clear that this story will cover way more than fourth year. This is just the beginning. So if you want to back out, do it now because you're in for a long ride. ;P

**Disclaimer**: Any recognizable material does not belong to me.

OoOoOoOoO

_A cute kind of Crazy…_

There were some things that Lily Evans would never be able to change about herself. Ever. No matter how hard she wished or tried… no matter how many _real _magic spells she cast. There were a few things in her life that plagued her like an annoying five-year-old and she just couldn't get them to go away and leave her alone.

One of these things was the fact that she was the only non-muggle in her family since before anyone could remember. And also, that her older sister, Petunia, condemned her for it. Petunia Evans absolutely hated her younger sister's guts. An apparently it was for no other reason except that when Lily 'waved around a stupid stick of wood' and said some magic words, things that she couldn't explain just seemed to happen. Magic things. Things that scared Petunia to death.

Another thing that Lily Evans would never be able to change about herself was her bad luck with breakfast beverages. Yes, breakfast beverages. No matter how many times she tried, or how _hard_ she tried, she always seemed to spill them. Even when she was doing her very best not to.

She couldn't even remember all the times she and her sister had gotten into fights over a spilt glass of extra pulpy orange juice that always fell onto the lap of Petunia's hand dry _only_ skirt. It was always a disaster. Even when Lily offered to risk being expelled from Coverfield and fix it magically, which she wasn't allowed to do because of underage wizarding rules, Petunia would wail and moan and scream that her absolute _favorite_ skirt was ruined, and she wasn't going to let her freak of a sister make it any worse by casting magic spells on it. It seemed to Lily that Petunia had a lot of absolute favorite, hand dry _only_ skirts.

Lily Evans often cried around her sister. And she absolutely hated herself for it. Petunia was one of the onlypeople in the world who could make her cry, and it was mostly because of this that Lily couldn't stand Petunia. And Petunia made a point of constantly mentioning that she _hated_ Lily. But it was hard for Lily to actually _hate _Petunia, because she kept on thinking, despite herself and the countless times she had been proven wrong, that someday, somehow she would be able to get her sister to love her again. Maybe…

Monday morning it was pumpkin juice.

The breakfast beverage was sitting harmlessly in a glass goblet on the Gryffindor table, inside the bustling breakfast commotion of the Great Hall, minding its own business when Lily Evans came along and knocked it over. She had been reaching for a blueberry muffin. She winced as she felt the familiar feeling of her arm knocking against something light and liquid-filled. Her insides became hot and uncomfortable, twisting themselves into slow, apprehensive knots as she heard the familiar sloshing, the dreaded clattering and finally the gasp of surprise. The bench scraped loudly against the floor as the innocent victim jumped to a stand. Lily nearly choked when she heard the little cry, the one that sounded just like Petunia's.

She half expected to see her older sister standing there, glaring at her with hateful brown eyes, letting her know that she had screwed up again, reminding her that she was an uncoordinated freak of nature _again_, that her older sister hated her… _again._ So when the eyes she met were only a wide, shocked shade of a much lighter russet brown, her heart started beating faster inside her chest.

It wasn't Petunia. It was someone else.

"Oh my God, I'm _so_ sorry!" Lily said, immediately looking for something nearby to mop the mess up with. Her desperate gaze fell on a napkin. It was triangular and white, folded neatly and decorated with red and gold stars. It was small, but it would do. "I _swear_ I didn't see your glass there! I am such a _clutz_!"

"Uh - It's OK-"

"I do this _all_ the time."

"Yeah, that's OK-"

"I'll – I'll go get you another drink," Lily said as she dabbed at the person's robes. The juice was sticky. That was the worst kind. "I'll – I'll – I promise. Here, oh God, I'm so sorry."

"H-hey, it's OK…" the person said, now a little exasperated at Lily's unexpected fever. "It's only juice-"

"I really am sorry, I didn't mean to." Lily repeated for the third time. "It's just I… I have this thing with breakfast drinks… Oh, God, this isn't dry clean only is it?" She asked desperately, her green eyes flashing up to the face but then darting back down again before she could even get a proper hold on whom it was she was apologizing too.

"No, they're-"

"These aren't you favorites are they?"

"No-"

"Because I can get you new ones if these are your favorites, really I'll have my parents ship them, they aren't ruined are they?" She said, inspecting the wet material with worried green eyes. "Because-"

"Hey, _relax_!" The person finally said, loud enough to get Lily's attention and keep her from dabbing at the stranger's robes. Lily looked up finally to meet a pair of dark brown eyes. "Just relax. It's _pumpkin juice_, not the end of the world."

It took the girl's sweet, and slightly bemused smile to convince Lily that she wasn't in serious trouble, the robes weren't the girl's favorites, they weren't dry clean only, and pumpkin juice actually _wasn't_ the end of the world. Just a bit of a mess that was easily cleaned away with the help of some magic.

The girl's name was Cara. Cara Lightly. And she was one of those girls who could have dropped her education on the spot and signed a contract to be a supermodel and become internationally famous. She had beautiful honey blonde hair that Lily's sister would have killed for, warm, russet brown eyes and a stunning smile. And as it turned out, she didn't even like pumpkin juice that much, she had merely gotten it because it was the only thing left. "And I don't know how to conjure up two percent milk." She said with a smile twisted into the corner of her lips.

Cara and Lily hit it off immediately. They spent most of breakfast talking, first about milk, then about Cara and then about Lily. Cara had one older brother who had just graduated Hogwarts last year, two younger sisters who weren't old enough to be away from home yet, a mother and a father and also a deranged, senile granddad who liked to chew up Jelly Beans and then spit them out at people, pretending he was a muggle machine gun during World War II. Cara didn't have a familiar, but she liked dogs and had three back at home. She was also in love with Quiddich.

Lily told about how her family had just moved away from Ireland because her old school, Coverfield, had been forced to shut down due to financial issues, thus forcing Lily to go to the nearest magic school around, which happened to be Hogwarts in England.

"Don't they have other magic schools in Ireland?" Cara asked, as she chewed on the corner of a strawberry jam biscuit.

"No." Lily said, rolling her eyes a bit. "Closet school was here."

"That's a bummer." Cara said sympathetically, "don't you miss your home?"

Lily sighed heavily. "More – than – you – can – imagine."

At that Cara smiled.

OoOoOoO

James watched from across the breakfast table as the red headed girl from the night before knocked a glass of pumpkin juice onto a tall blonde who he recognized from his Quiddich team but had rarely ever talked to before. However, instead of being calm and collected like he had imagined she would be, the pretty red head – and she was very pretty he realized, now that he had the chance to look at her when she wasn't sopping wet or standing in a dark room – had fussed over the tall girl nervously, and all the while bubbling away with talk about dry cleaning and being so sorry and possibly shipping the blonde girl new ones… James shook his head in bewilderment as he took a bite of his charcoaled toast.

'_Shipping new ones? The girl must be insane…_' But… James kind of liked this girl's version of insane. While it was a little puzzling at first it was very… cute. _She _was very cute. Not only because of her almond shaped, cat green eyes and dark red hair – not the orange stringy kind that he couldn't stand on girls, but an actual, heavy dark red color, like rubies or sunsets or… the Gryffindor banner – that fell in slow waves to her shoulders, or the charming little freckles that were sprinkled across her nose, or her pretty, delicate mouth but also just the way she _was_. It was kind of hard to place… He didn't even know insanity could be cute. He had always thought that crazy was just… crazy. And was _he_ crazy for having these insane thoughts? He sure as hell had never had them before…

It was a strange, unfamiliar feeling of interest that overcame him while he watched her… and it took him a while to realize that she was making him smile. Once James caught himself he tried to shake it off. It was probably nothing.

He was very, very wrong.

"Reckon it'll be a nasty surprise for the Slytherins when they wake up." Sirius was saying happily as he tossed a chocolate frog into his mouth. "I still say it was sheer brilliance the way we thought to bake the dung bombs into the furniture like that… 'ey Mooney?"

Remus smirked, though he tried his best to hide it. "It was… creative." He said at last, trying to be immune.

"_Creative_?" Sirius asked. "It was bloody brilliant, and you know it. Admit it Mooney, no one else in the entire history of Hogwarts has ever thought to melt dung bombs into furniture. I mean, come _on-_"

"Alright, fine." Remus said, putting up his hands in defeat and dropping his bagel in the process. "It was brilliant. I admit."

"Thank you."

"Hey…" James said finally after a breakfast of silence, tearing his eyes away from the girl on the other side of the room.

"Hm?" Sirius asked while chewing down the last of his chocolate and then swallowing it down with some milk.

"What's that girl's name? The one from last night. Did you manage to catch it?"

Sirius frowned. "What girl?"

"You know… the one with the kitten I stepped on."

"That crazy chick who practically bit your head off?"

A hint of a smile flitted across James's face. "Yeah, that one. The crazy one."

"Don't remember." Sirius said bluntly, his voice was a little cold. James for some reason got the impression that his best friend was annoyed.

"Wasn't it… -erm- well… was it Daisy or something like that?" Peter suggested. "Some sort of flower?"

James frowned distastefully. Daisy wasn't right.

"Crazy Daisy…" Sirius said absently, a cold smile on his face. "Has a kind of ring to it…"

James scowled. "Her name wasn't-"

"Lily." Remus spoke up suddenly, putting down his pumpkin juice. "Her name was Lily."

"_That's_ it." James said, satisfied that he had the right name. "Lily…" he tried out the sound of it. "Yeah…" It fit in his voice… felt right in his mouth. It sort of rolled off his tongue like water… Lily. "Hey, how'd you remember that, anyway?"

Remus shrugged. "Gifted I guess."

"Werewolf thing." Sirius said, grinning.

"Not so loud, you oaf." Remus said as he stood. "And its not a… you know… it doesn't have anything to do with _that_."

"Uh-huh, suure." Sirius said, as he stood up too cramming the last of a frog leg into his mouth.

James stuffed the last bit of toast between his lips and stood up beside his best friend, Peter hurriedly finishing his breakfast and then standing up by James.

"So, Moony what've we got first?" James asked casually, ruffling up his hair as they passed a crowd of girls.

"Potions. Slughorn."

James winced. "With…?"

"Slytherins."

Sirius and James exchanged a look. If there was anything in the world they hated – other than cheesy pranks and over told jokes that weren't even funny the first time they were told – it was the Slytherins.

"Oh joy." Sirius said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Couldn't have asked for a more _fantastic_ way to start my first day."

Beside him, James smiled tartly. "You're telling me."

**A/N**: Bleh… can't get this thing right. Oh well… if at first you can't succeed and all that.


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